EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra is known for the warmth and detail of the sounds it produces. With the incorporation of PLAY, users of the upgraded EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra will experience the benefits of the an even better sample engine immediately. With the typical orchestral composition encompassing a large amount of instruments, EASTWEST's PLAY software will streamline the process by allowing many more instruments to be loaded at one time than with previous systems. This Gold Complete version features 33GB worth of material, with 16-bit samples, each with one stagr mic position and full articulations.

Beyond EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra's phenomenal recording quality is its ability to breathe life into the virtual world, creating a real space and filling it with sound. In the past, this meant adding reverb and effects, further digitizing and degrading the overall quality of your music. Now, EastWest/Quantum Leap accomplish this through separately recording the natural hall ambiance after the instrument has stopped playing until the sound has actually ceased. The software triggers this "release trail" at the end of every note and adjusts the dynamics so that the samples blend seamlessly, truly placing the listener in the hall with the orchestra.

PLAYPLAY isn't just a sampler. The PLAY system is a professional, fully integrated sample playback software solution for those with the most demanding production requirements. Its 64-bit support (available as a download for Mac users) allows you to load many more instruments and voices, limited only by your system RAM. 32-bit support is included also.

If you still need more power, PLAY's network control allows you to load instruments on other machines controlled from your host computer. That means no more trips back and forth between computers and no more KVM switching when loading projects. There's also no need to buy additional software.

The PLAY interface is designed to eliminate clutter, including only the controls needed for each individual virtual instrument. All the instruments are listed in one easy-to-use browser which displays all of your instruments. It includes a favorites section to group the instruments you use most. You can also preview your instrument of choice in an simplified column viewer. Load instruments into one instance to take advantage of your sequencer's instrument tracks, or into multiples if you so desire.The Interface automatically changes to display current instrument whatever you do.

As far as articulations, you can forget browsing through complicated patch names. Just pick the instrument and play, and turn on/off articulations as you wish. The Articulations list also serves as reference for all expressions within the instrument (no need to look up key-switches in charts). Save your favorite configuration for quick retrieval.

PLAY is full of many other helpful features too. It has a legato detection that senses legato and repetitive playing and responds accordingly. It allows you to manipulate stereo samples in very useful ways, like the Stereo Swap which lets you instantly swap the left and right channels (Mono from left, Mono from right, or Mono Sum allow for instant conversion from stereo to mono). Th playback engine was built from the ground up to create the most intuitive instruments possible. The powerful effects engine has a reverb section which includes multiple impulse responses from halls, and the famous EastWest Studios and live chambers (more RIAA certified Platinum and Gold records awarded than any other studio). It also gives you incredibly smoothest filters. The iLok security system that PLAY uses ensures you complete portability, allowing you take your plug-in anywhere you want for use on any computer, and to authorize and manage up to 100 per one key.

PLAY is natively supported in all major hosts on all major operating systems.

FEATURES

33GB: contains 16-bit samples, each with one stage mic position and full articulations

This software is targeted towards advanced users. If you know how to shape your sound with CC's, you can achieve amazingly realistic arrangements. The amount of articulations, while not completely exhaustive, is very expansive. This is definitely a symphonic/classical library; you'll be hard-pressed to bust out a swinging big band piece, but that's not the intention.On an Intel Q9550 with 8GB of RAM, I've got no trouble loading and playing back 16 tracks with multiple articulations loaded on each. If you're running a 32-bit operating system, you will be limited to 3GB of RAM, and will be a very sad panda. Make sure you're running 64-bit, and have as much RAM as you can fit/afford.Be sure to check their site for host compatibility, and note that you will need an iLok dongle for the license. If you're looking for something that's plug-and-play, "sequence a few notes, get an orchestra," you're not going to be any happier with this than you would with freebies. It takes work, but it's worth it.

I've owned the Silver Complete for a while, and just upgraded to Gold recently. I've always loved using this software, it just sounds great, and there's no end to the possibilities when you have all the articulations that the Gold package offers. I'm not sure what issue other reviewers have had with overloading a computer; my desktop has 4GB of RAM, and while it can slow things down from time to time, it usually works perfectly fine for me, it just takes a little time to learn how to load and assign instruments so they don't eat up too much memory. The only flaw is that EastWest is notorious for bugs, which can be a pain, but they have lots of help on their website and forums, and most problems can be solved by downloading an update or a driver. A nice feature of this software is that if you buy any other Eastwest PLAY library, they all load into the same plug-in, so you don't have to run several instances in tandum; Orchestra, Piano, Stormdrum, etc. instruments will all load in the same plug-in. All of Eastwest's libraries have been a lot of fun to use, and I can't find anything out there that matches the sound quality.

If you can't get the software and plugins to work and you can't get support or answers from their website, you really just have a bunch of useless DVDs that cost you big money. There must be a product out there that is easier to use. I tried this first, and I don't recommend it. Not user-friendly or compatible.

EastWest's Symphonic collections (all varieties, not just the Gold Orchestra) contain some of the finest sounding instruments I've encountered. They are not, however, designed for beginners. If you expect to be able to play or sequence a few notes, set a patch, and have professional results, you will be disappointed.The power in this collection comes from the vast number of articulations of each instrument. If you are willing to take the time to choose your articulations on a note by note basis (you can use keyswitches to swap, so you don't need extra MIDI tracks), and create good envelopes for expression, volume, and the like, you can achieve amazing results.

The samples sound great, they are huge and sound very detailed. Unfortunately, in order to use them you need a huge computer. Recommended for this program is 4GB Ram. My computer is a very high end computer, but it's not even possible to install 4GB of RAM in my computer (limit of 3GB in current configuration). Using this instrument it is very easy to overload even a very good computer, and if you want to run the kind of massive arrangements they have posted as demos on their website you are going to have to run at least two computers in tandum (I don't even know how to do that). In addition, you are going to have to be one damned fine keyboardist to make these things sound like they do in the demos. Steinberg and IK both offer Symphonic Orchestra programs that don't sound quite as big as these, but they will definitely get the job done. I own both, and I prefer them to this. Plus, the customer service at EastWest absolutely sucks.